Execution was the key for Patti Knezevic and her Prince George Golf and Curling Club teammates during the week to secure a berth in the BC Scotties Women's Curling championship playoffs.
Knezevic finished on top of the standings with a 7-2 record and faced Kelly Scott of Kelowna in the 1-2 Page-playoff game Friday night at the Cloverdale Curling Club. The winner slides into Sunday's final while the loser received a second chance in Saturday's semifinal.
"Our goal was to get a playoff position," said Knezevic before her showdown with Scott. "It was quite a grind this week, but to be in the 1-2 game is huge with the playoff system."
When the two teams met Thursday morning, Scott pulled out a 6-4 win but, Knezevic said there were some things her team could've done better.
"We've been fairly strong at sticking to our own game plan but, I think we left a few things out on the ice and didn't capitalize on a few opportunities that we had when we played her during the week," said Knezevic.
The Prince George skip added they just have to treat Scott, the defending BC champion, the same as they would any other team.
Scott stole a deuce in the eighth end to go up 7-4 but Knezevic fought back scoring her own pair in the ninth end before stealing one in 10 to tie the game at 7-7 and forcing an extra end. The teams were playing the 11th end at press time. See www.playdowns.com for the final result.
Other members of the Knezevic team include, third Kristen Fewster, second Jen Rusnell and lead Rhonda Camozzi. The alternate is Falon Burkitt and the women are coached by Rick Fewster.
Knezevic wrapped up the round-robin portion of the provincial women's curling championship Friday with an 8-3 win over Roberta Kuhn and her Vernon Curling Club rink to finish with a 7-2 record along with Scott and Maria Mallett of the host Cloverdale Curling Club.
During the week Knezevic beat Mallett and lost to Scott while Mallett beat Scott. The tiebreaker was determined by the number of times each team secured the hammer during the week.
"We certainly didn't put that much pressure on ourselves this morning," said Knezevic. "We knew we had a job to do but we didn't think too much of the consequence of what a win or a loss would mean in the morning."
Allison MacInnes and her Abbotsford Curling Club earned the final playoff berth after beating Marilou Richter of the Royal City Curling Club in a tiebreaker after both teams finished with identical 6-3 records. Both teams finished the week at 6-3. MacInnes won the tiebreaker 11-8 in nine ends.
MacInnes and Mallett will play off in the 3-4 game today, 10 a.m., with the winner advancing to the semifinal at 5:30 p.m. against the loser of the 1-2 game. The winner of the 1-2 game advances straight to Sunday's final at 2 p.m.
